“‘Seven seasons and out’ has never been the conversation,” Lombardo told reporters during HBO’s presentation at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour on Thursday. “The question is, how much beyond the seventh season are we going to do?”

According to Lombardo, “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are “feeling like there’s probably two more years after [season] six,” noting that he would “love for them to change their minds, but that’s what we’re looking at right now.”

So that would mean eight seasons (and a movie?) for the super popular HBO series. That seems pretty reasonable given the previous reports and it’s also clear that winter has to eventually come to the show after the events of season five. There’s a lot of dead bodies piling up and you can’t keep doing that without being close to some breaking point.

There is enough Westeros background material out there for HBO to use for multiple miniseries or TV movie events in companion to the main show or as a continuation series.

Robert’s Rebellion is the obvious choice, given that it has the most recent links to the main show and a linear storyline.
Ep. 1-Mad King origins/Defiance of Duskendale 2-Rhaegar/Tourney at Harrenhall/Kidnapping of Lyanna Stark 3- Mad King executes the Starks/Jon Arryn calls his banners 4- Rebels win battles/Tullys change sides 5- Jamie Lannister begins to doubt/ Mad King gathers wildfire 6- Battle of the Trident 7- Sack of Kings Landing/Kingslayer 8- Tower of Joy

@IronBeagle they’ve already told (in the show) the events of Tournament at Harrenhal, Jaime killing the Mad King, they’ll most likely reveal R+L=J is true next season and as Gippetto mentioned they’re doing a Tower of Joy next season bringing Ser Arthur Dayne into the mix (which I’d be excited to see) and the only living person (as far as I know) that knows the truth about what Lyana made Ned promise her. I don’t think I’ve heard mention (but I might be wrong) of the Mad King killing Rickard and Brandon Stark but I’d hardly say that’s worth doing an entire series for. I have a feeling that everything that you’re going to want to know about Robert’s Rebellion will be revealed to you next season. I’d like to see these events as well, but in truth, I don’t think many viewers would want to sit through a series that they already know the main turning points of the story.

It’s a different age in television. They could probably pull it off if Benioff,Weiss, and HBO remain in control. Even if CBS or Lifetime picked up the show (obviously not happening), I seriously doubt anyone would be bored of anything GOT-related.

I think only the casual viewer would be bored like you said, but for an avid viewer, a reader, someone who’s actually more interested than “there’s nothing on tonight, I might as well watch this Game thing,” would love it. The events from Roberts Rebellion to what’s happening in the show only span about 20 years. There’s thousands of years worth of stories to tell. Hell, just the last few hundred going back to Aegon’s Landing would be really interesting with all the Targaryans kings and Blackfyre Rebellion’s in between. Before you go off saying that they’re trying to force it and there’s no appetite for it, you might wanna check out the Youtube Channel and see what there is to see about it. Hell, I think Aerys was the 16th Targaryan king. Trust me, lots of story that would be really interesting and make for great television.

You obviously are only a casual viewer. If you were a reader or even looked at the Youtube channel…or even read the article, you’d know what they’re talking about precedes this storyline with a lot of characters that you’ve heard of but haven’t seen. There are however, thousands of years worth of history that precede the roughly 20 years of story between Robert’s Rebellion to now.

The thing about characters you’ve heard of but haven’t seen is that you then lose the majority of your built in audience. Casual viewers don’t care about people they don’t know. Definitely not enough to watch a show built around them.

The last few seasons of the show, written without the guidance of the books, will probably be a good barometer as to whether the show runners can pull it off. If they can make the last few seasons as engaging as the first five without the benefit of Martin’s guide, there might be hope.

I think the Blackfyre Rebellion would be an amazing prequel, for a couple reasons;

1.) It addresses the issues about outcome. Unless you’re a huge ASoIaF nerd you’re probably not aware of it and it occurred early enough to not have any of the main characters in the current time period around. So new characters, new story, etc. but it would be informative of Westeros leading up to GoT.

2.) It is awesome.

3.) It could easily swing a full season or two. Depending on how much into the aftermath they get, you could see even more seasons potentially. Including in that aftermath, Bloodraven, which could be a huge tie-in for GoT

HBO really should have told D&D to pump the breaks after season 3. They went light speed through books 4 & 5 condensing them into 1 incredibly weak season that should have been 2 outstanding seasons. The further D&D have strayed from the books the worse the show has gotten. Now they have unresolved plot lines, missing characters, and lines like “bad pussy”.

As far as prequels go, HBO can easily make Robert’s rebellion, Dunk & Egg, and the Dance of the Dragons if they felt like it. There you go HBO, 6 or 7 more seasons. When can I expect my check?